Navigating A Cookieless Future: PPC Strategies For Privacy-First World

The digital advertising landscape is constantly changing, and a recent announcement from Google has shifted things yet again.

On July 22, 2024, Google made a surprising U-turn on its long-standing plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome.

This decision comes after years of back-and-forth between Google, regulatory bodies, and the advertising industry.

Advertisers have relied on third-party cookies – small pieces of code placed on users’ browsers by external websites – to track online behaviour, build detailed user profiles, and serve targeted ads across the web.

The initial plan to remove these cookies was driven by growing privacy concerns and regulations such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US.

However, Google’s recent announcement doesn’t mean the death of the cookieless future has been permanently averted. Instead, it signals a more gradual and user-choice-driven transition, allowing us to keep cookies for a little bit longer.

Google now plans to introduce a new experience in Chrome that will enable users to make informed choices about their web browsing privacy, which they can adjust at any time, thus giving control back to the user.

This change in approach emphasizes the ongoing tension between privacy concerns and the need for effective digital advertising.

While third-party cookies may stick around longer than initially expected, the trend toward more privacy-focused solutions continues. As such, it’s crucial for businesses running PPC campaigns to stay informed and adaptable.

In this article, we’ll examine the debate surrounding the elimination of cookies for enhanced privacy, explore the potential alternatives to third-party cookies, and discuss how these changes might shape the future of PPC campaigns in an evolving digital landscape.

Should We Get Rid Of Cookies For Enhanced Privacy?

The digital advertising industry has been debating this question for years.

Despite Google’s recent decision to keep third-party cookies in Chrome, the overall direction of the industry is moving towards more privacy-focused solutions.

Other major browsers, including Safari and Firefox, have already implemented restrictions on third-party cookies, underlining the industry trend toward increased privacy for users.

Of course, whether cookieless is the best path to greater privacy is still debated.

Yes, this would reduce some forms of tracking on the one hand, but on the other hand, it will spur efforts toward arguably even more invasive tracking methods.

Cookies also store a couple of user-friendly purposes like login information and user preferences.

As the industry continues to talk about these questions, one thing is obvious: the future of digital advertising will be a dance between user privacy and effective ad targeting.

However, that may be the case. Only time will tell whether it is in accepting the eventual phasing out of third-party cookies or developing new technologies that make the use of privacy user-friendly in the end.

What Options Are There To Replace Third-Party Cookies?

The urgency to find replacements halted after Google announced that Chrome would retain third-party cookies while adding more controls for users.

However, Google is still moving forward with its Privacy Sandbox initiative, which aims to develop privacy-preserving alternatives to third-party cookies.

The Privacy Sandbox is a collective name given to ongoing collaborative efforts to create new technologies designed to protect user privacy while ensuring digital ads are as effective as possible.

For some time now, Google has announced a raft of APIs around this, including the Topics API, Protected Audience API, and Attribution Reporting API.

These technologies are designed to offer a subset of the functionality of third-party cookies in a far more privacy-friendly manner.

While Google decided to retain third-party cookies for the time being, it is worth noting that the company is still investing in these alternative technologies.

This reflects the fact that the trend in the long run is toward a more privacy-centric Web, even though the transition might be happening at a slightly slower pace than initially planned.

In mid-2023, Google announced the release of 6 new APIs for Chrome version 115, designed to replace some functionalities of third-party cookies:

• The Topics API allows the browser to show ads based on broad interest categories or “topics” that users care about without tracking them individually. For example, topics could include fitness, travel, books, and literature.
• Protected Audience API enables interest-based advertising by allowing an “interest group owner” to ask a user’s Chrome browser to add a membership for a specific interest group.
• Attribution Reporting API helps advertisers understand the most effective ads without revealing individual user data.
• private-aggregation”>Private Aggregation API works with aggregated data from the Topics API and Shared Storage, similar to Attribution Reporting.
• Shared Storage API allows advertisers to show relevant ads without accessing visitors’ personal information.
• Fenced Frames API enables websites to display ads in a privacy-safe manner without tracking or collecting visitor information.

It’s important to note that these APIs are still evolving, and more may be developed in the future.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has raised concerns about various aspects of these APIs, including user consent interfaces, the potential for abuse, and impacts on competition in the digital advertising market.

As a digital marketer, it’s crucial to stay informed about these developments and be prepared to adapt your strategies as these new technologies roll out.

While they aim to provide privacy-friendly alternatives to third-party cookies, they will likely require new approaches to targeting, measuring, and optimizing your PPC campaigns.

First-Party Data

As third-party cookies slowly become a thing of the past, first-party data becomes very important. First-party data is information you collect directly from your audience or customers, including the following:

• Website or app usage patterns.
• Purchase history.
• Newsletter subscriptions with email.
• Reactions and feedback forms from customers, online surveys.
• Social media engagement with your brand.

First-party data is collected based on the users’ consent and falls under the Utility Standards of privacy regulations.

It also provides direct insights about your customers and their activities towards your brand, enabling more accurate and relevant targeting.

Alternative Tracking Methods

As the industry moves away from third-party cookies, several new tracking and measurement methods are emerging:

Consent Mode V2: A feature that adjusts Google tags based on user consent choices. When a user doesn’t consent to cookies, Consent Mode automatically adapts tag behavior to respect the user’s preference while still providing some measurement capabilities. This approach gives users more control over their data and its use, balancing user privacy and advertisers’ data needs.

Enhanced Conversions: Implementing this improves conversion measurement accuracy using first-party data. It uses hashed customer data like email addresses to connect online activity with actual conversions, even when cookies are limited. By utilizing secure hashing to protect user data while improving measurement, Enhanced Conversions offers a privacy-focused solution for tracking conversions.

Server-Side Tracking: This method collects data from the user’s browser and sends it to the server. Instead of placing tracking pixels or scripts on the user’s browser, data is collected and processed on the server side. This method reduces user data exposure in the browser, improving security and website performance while allowing for effective tracking.

Customer Lists: This utilizes first-party data for audience targeting and remarketing. Advertisers can upload hashed lists of customer information, like email addresses, to platforms for targeting or measurement purposes. This approach relies on data that customers have directly provided to the business rather than third-party tracking, making it a more privacy-conscious method of audience targeting.

Offline Conversion Tracking: OCT connects online ad interactions with offline conversions. It uses unique identifiers to link clicks on online ads to offline actions such as phone calls or in-store purchases. This method provides a more holistic view of the customer journey without relying on extensive online tracking, bridging the gap between digital advertising and real-world conversions.

Small businesses, with their adaptability, can navigate these changes.

Though no single method would be a perfect replacement for the functionality of third-party cookies, together, these alternatives can supply similar functionality for advertisers and solve the privacy fault lines that brought about their deprecation.

Advertisers are likely to need this combination of methods to achieve desired advertising and measurement goals in the era beyond cookies.

Long-Term Strategies For Small Businesses

1. First-Party Data Collection Strategy

Shift your focus to collecting data directly from your customers:

• Add sign-up forms against email capture on a website.
• Create loyalty programs or share valuable content in return for information about your customers.
• Use tools like Google Analytics to trace user interactivity on a website.
• Customer feedback surveys to understand their view about a business and learn more about your customers.

This process will be successful by building trust:

• Be open and transparent about how you collect and make use of the customer’s data.
• Communicate and offer your customers whatever value they get in return for their information.
• Give customers an easy way out and allow them an opt-out option. Customers must have control over their data.
• Provide regular training to raise employee awareness about privacy regulations and best practices for handling customer data.

Invest in a robust CRM system to help organize and manage first-party data effectively.

2. Diversify Your Marketing Channels

Businesses should not keep all the eggs in one basket.

Yes, the need for PPC will always be there; however, in light of this drastic step, it is imperative now to diversify marketing efforts within/between:

Diversification allows you to reach customers through numerous touchpoints and reduces your reliance upon any platform or technology.

Remember that the rule of seven states that a prospect needs to “hear” (or see) the brand’s message at least seven times before they take action to buy that product or service.

3. Embrace Contextual Targeting

Contextual targeting is a kind of targeting that displays advertisements by webpage content and not by the profiles of users. How to work with this approach:

• Choose relevant, meaningful keywords and topics aligned with your products or services.
• Choose placements where your target audience will most likely be viewing.
• Produce several ad creatives specifically for various contexts to prompt relevance.

Pros Of Contextual Targeting

• Privacy-friendly since it does not utilize personal data.
• When well done, targeting people actively interested in connected subjects is remarkably effective.

Cons Of Contextual Targeting

• Accuracy in targeting audiences might be lower than the audience-based targeting methods.
• Requires planning and analysis of content.

4. Use Tracking Solutions With A Focus On Privacy

Next comes server-side tracking and conversion APIs (refer to this article’s Alternative Tracking Methods section for more information). These methods shift data collection from the user’s browser to your server.

Pros

• Improved data accuracy: Server-side tracking can capture events that client-side tracking might miss due to ad blockers or browser restrictions.
• Cross-device tracking capabilities: Server-side solutions can more easily track user interactions across different devices and platforms.
• Future-proofing: As browser restrictions on cookies and client-side tracking increase, server-side solutions will likely remain more stable and effective in the long term.
• Ability to enrich data: Server-side tracking allows data integration from multiple sources before sending it to analytics platforms, potentially providing richer insights.

Cons

• Increased complexity: Server-side tracking and conversion APIs are more technically complex than traditional client-side methods, potentially requiring specialized skills or resources to implement and maintain.
• Potential latency issues: Server-side tracking may introduce slight delays in data processing, which could impact real-time analytics or personalization efforts.
• Ongoing maintenance: Server-side solutions often require more regular updates and maintenance to ensure they remain effective and compliant with evolving privacy regulations.

These solutions may become overly technical. You can also partner with a developer or an agency to ensure their implementation.

5. Investment In Creative Optimization

With reduced accuracy in targeting, your ad creative is more crucial than ever:

• Design creative, eye-catching visuals to blockbuster visuals.
• Be bold, clear in your ad copy, and fast in delivering your value proposition.
• Test different ad formats to find out what will make a connection with people.
• Run A/B testing over ad variations, images, headlines, or CTAs.

6. Embrace Privacy-First Solutions

Track the numerous efforts underway within Google’s Privacy Sandbox and other fast-developing privacy-centric solutions.

Be prepared to test these tools and to scale up their adoption upon release to stay ahead of the curve.

For now, enable Enhanced Conversions inside Google Ads to deliver a better model of your return on ad spend (ROAS) using hashed first-party data.

7. Train And Educate Employees End

Provide continuous training to your workforce:

• Educate your employees about data privacy and security.
• Keep them updated with all the latest privacy regulations and their impact on businesses.
• Conduct training on best practices in collecting, storing, and using customer data.
• Embed a culture of privacy awareness across the organization.

8. Collaborate With Experts

Navigating a cookieless future can be tricky.

A PPC agency or consultant can help you with the latest changes and best practices, implement advanced tracking and targeting solutions, and optimize your campaigns in this new landscape.

When choosing an agency:

• Check for experience in privacy-first campaigns.
• Ask about their approach to first-party data and alternative targeting methods.
• They have a record for converting to changes in the industry.

Start Now And Be Flexible As Digital Advertising Changes

Google’s decision to keep third-party cookies in Chrome while adding more user controls represents a significant shift in the digital advertising landscape.

While this move will definitely grant a bit of breathing room to the advertisers who are heavily reliant on third-party cookies, it doesn’t change the overall trend towards user privacy and control over personal data.

The strategies outlined in this article – focusing on first-party data collection, diversifying marketing channels, embracing contextual targeting, and investing in privacy-focused solutions – remain relevant for long-term success in digital advertising.

These approaches will help you navigate the current landscape and prepare you for a future where user privacy is increasingly prioritized.

Yes, third-party cookies are sticking around longer than initially expected, but the push to find more privacy-friendly advertising solutions still continues.

By implementing these strategies now, you’ll be better positioned to adapt to further changes down the road, whether they come from regulatory bodies, browser policies, or changing consumer expectations.

The time to start future-proofing is now. Start by auditing your existing strategies, building first-party data assets, and testing new targeting and measurement capabilities.

Stay informed about developments in privacy-preserving technologies like Google’s Privacy Sandbox, and be prepared to test and implement these new tools when they become available.

Taking a proactive, strategic approach that puts the user’s privacy and trust first ensures that your PPC campaigns will continue to thrive. The future of digital advertising may be uncertain.

Still, with the appropriate strategies and respect for users’ privacy, you can turn these challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation.

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

How To Get Ad Creative AI-Ready In Search Ads via @sejournal, @LisaRocksSEM

PPC ads are at the core of many marketers’ digital media mix, so it is critical to stay on top of new features and ad tech advancements.

The hot topic and major changes involve AI to automate and improve the efficiency of pay-per-click campaigns.

However, it’s unsurprising that AI is not replacing the marketing strategist or PPC manager. On the contrary, the marketing team is more important than ever to provide high-quality manual creative ad assets to the ad platforms to inform the AI machine.

While this is an automated process, the advertiser is at the heart of this, providing the creative strategy, vision, and messaging. You power the AI.

Note: This article focuses on Google Ads due to their market share and volume, but many of these suggestions can be applied to any ad platform.

The AI power component comes into play through “automatically created assets,” where the “asset” is the headline or description of the ad copy. The “manual assets” refers to what the advertiser writes and enters into Google Ads.

Consider:

• Automatically created assets generate new headlines and descriptions continuously to form ad copy that is relevant to the query and ad’s content.
• Automated assets are used alongside and in combination with advertiser manual assets to show the search ad that is predicted to perform the strongest.
• Reporting (asset details report) is available on automatically generated content, and advertisers can remove it if needed.

First, the advertiser must opt in at the campaign level. This is a good thing because there is prep work to be done to get the greatest benefit from AI tools.

automatically created assets in Google Ads” width=”480″ height=”246″ class=”aligncenter” />

Next, prepare your inputs for AI-driven ads:

• Landing page.
• Manual assets.
• Keywords.

1. Landing Page And Website

One key aspect of getting the most from AI is the landing page and website content. The AI algorithms need content to draw from, and the better the content, the more potential outputs will have.

After providing the URL, Google will find the relevant information on your page to generate ad creative.

Clear and ad-focused content. Clever, flowery marketing language or excessive jargon takes a back seat to concise, fact-based language.

Correct and up-to-date content. This can be a challenge for some smaller advertisers who do not have complete control over frequent content changes without incurring web dev fees. You may want to wait on AI right now if this is the case. For everyone else, be proactive and mindful about writing content for ads. Next, the “reactive” approach is to review reports to determine if web content should be altered or automated assets should be removed. The automated assets will change if the web content changes or assets are removed.

Content alignment. Ensure that the landing page content aligns with the ad copy. Keywords and messaging should be consistent with the search ads to maintain user trust and engagement.

Clear value proposition. Highlight the unique benefits or solutions your product/service offers. Use a compelling headline and subheadline that immediately captures the visitor’s attention.

Write strong CTAs. A common problem is advertisers simply not being clear in their CTAs in ad copy or on landing pages. Use action-oriented language repeated on the page and ad. Stick to one clear CTA. For a refresher, see this post.

Bonus: It is also a good idea to make a long-term plan to permanently change web content to aid AI in the future, as it is here to stay.

2. Manual Assets

The “manual assets” refer to the headlines and descriptions you write and enter into Google Ads.

Since the headlines and descriptions are served in many combinations, it’s important that the assets communicate a cohesive message. Enabling AI will allow automatically generated descriptions to be thrown into the mix.

Headlines: With up to 15 headlines with a maximum of 30 characters, try to assign a strategy to the type and number of headlines. For example, include:

• Brand name: Although your company will appear in the “business name” field, it might not be the brand or product name you need to communicate here. Control the language and use a pin if needed.
• Keywords from the adgroup.
• CTA: ensure this is consistent and consider pinning this headline.
• Feature/benefit.

Descriptions: Up to 4 total, with up to 90 characters per description.

While you want to use keywords, unique headlines, and consider Google suggestions, the ad should ultimately be clear, concise, and persuasive enough to get users to click and convert.

3. Keywords

In search campaigns with automated assets, keywords still matter and inform Google and, ultimately, your customer what the ad is about.

We want to stick with best practices in account structure and keyword selection. The keywords should always be closely connected to your ad and landing page.

If you have not been a perfectionist on this recently, now is a good time to review and evaluate your keywords, keeping AI automation in mind.

A great shortcut: While in the ad creation tool, venture into the ad suggestions area where Google will show you “popular keywords from the adgroup” you can click to add as a headline.

Finally, Performance

• You can see the automatically created assets that were generated and served by reviewing the asset detail report.
• Remove assets you don’t like: under the Responsive search ad > View asset details.

Conclusion

One of the misconceptions about AI in ads and automatically generated assets is that it’s a “set and forget” model that solves problems with ad management resources, time, and performance.

As we can see above, the process to enable AI takes knowledge, strategy, and ongoing management to ensure the messages served to your ideal customers can meet and exceed what is done manually.

This can only be achieved with humans setting it up for success.

Learn more on this topic: Google Ads: A Quick Guide To Every AI-Powered Ad Creative Feature (And What’s Coming Soon)

More resources:

Featured Image: VectorMine/Shutterstock

Which Metrics Matter In PPC? via @sejournal, @navahf

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has evolved quite a bit since it first began in the early days of the internet.

Metrics like cost per click (CPC) remain an important part of the conversation, while others (like average position) have retired.

Understanding the history of each major metric, as well as how they relate to each other, is critical to determining which metrics to focus on.

This guide will attempt to be as agnostic as possible on account structure strategy (though a certain amount of subjectivity is unavoidable).

Here’s what we’ll be covering:

• The major metrics in PPC: In this case, we define PPC as any channel where you pay per click. This means there will be some video/social metrics.
• Relationships between metrics.
• Which metrics matter today and likely will matter in the future?

Major Metrics In PPC

Given that Google is a dominant player, we’ll focus mostly on those metrics. However, we’ll call out additional network metrics where needed.

Additionally, we’re not separating YouTube from Google Ads. We will only cover “go do” metrics vs. informational ones (i.e., the setup metrics).

By the way, this section is a bit beginner-friendly. So, if you’re already familiar with PPC metrics, skip ahead to the next section.

Relationship Between Metrics

There’s a lot of interconnectivity between PPC metrics, and it can be a bit daunting to know which relationships to build strategy around.

While there’s a case to be made for every metric playing a role in your account choices, these are the top relationships to focus on.

CTR And Conversion Rate

The most critical relationship to focus on is CTR vs. conversion rate.

This is because these two metrics help hold your ad account and website accountable for their respective roles in winning customers.

If your CTR is really good and your conversion rate is not, there are a few potential paths you can explore:

• Is the landing page letting you down? This could be a design issue or a technical one (conversion tracking isn’t configured correctly).
• The ads are engaging, but they target people who aren’t quite ready to purchase. Adding more prequalifying language into the ads can solve this.
• Targeting is outright incorrect, and the clicks are accidental. This can be caused by search partners with display expansion or misconfigured Performance Max campaigns.

When CTR is low but the conversion rate is good, the fixes will be a little different:

• The ad creative may not be enticing enough. You may want to be more direct in asking folks to contact you or order now.
• Your budget may not support prime-time bidding, so you end up serving a lot during off-hours when folks are less likely to engage. You can correct this with an ad schedule to force budgets to only spend during peak hours.
• There may be a double or triple counting issue, where you’re getting more than one conversion count per click. Use the “conversion action” segment to identify any false positives. This is critical to catch because double-counting conversions will influence smart bidding and reporting.

When both are good or bad, it can be a little tougher to know where to focus optimization or scale efforts.

The best starting point will always be your customers and the quality of your leads.

Average CPC And Search Terms/Placement Type

It can be very tempting to overoptimize for cheap clicks, but if you only focus on CPC, you may price yourself out of the auction.

While we don’t have full search term access, leveraging what we do have is critical to making informed choices around which ideas we budget for.

If your average CPCs are low for your industry, here is what you should check for:

• Branded queries sneaking into non-branded campaigns. This can happen if you’re using broad match, as well as if you don’t use negatives to sequester branded traffic.
• Non-search placements are using search budget. These placements aren’t inherently bad, but if you’re bidding for search, you will overbid on other placements.
• If you’re losing more than 50% impression share due to rank, you are likely choking volume too much to be profitable.

When the average CPC is high for your industry, here is what to check for:

• Accidental duplicates that might be causing you to bid against yourself (and potentially cause serving issues). While search terms will be the best source of truth for this, you also can check a keyword’s status. If you get the “another eligible keyword was chosen” status more than 25% of the time, you likely need to clean up close variant duplicates.
• The bidding strategy may be forcing you to bid too high because there isn’t enough conversion data to inform smart bidding. Consider switching back to manual or using target impression share/max clicks with a bid cap. The bid cap should be no more than 10% of your daily budget.

CPA And ROAS’s Influence On Volume/Value

One reason Smart Bidding (Max Conversions and Max Conversion Value) catches a lot of heat is that people don’t fully understand how to help them learn profitable budget allocation.

It is very normal for a brand-new account using Smart Bidding to have a bad experience if they don’t have enough conversions (30+) in a 30-day period.

When you need volume, CPAs and ROAS have to be more conservative. For example, you might be willing to take a $100 CPA on a $300 product/service. The ROAS goal would be 300% (we spent $100 to achieve $300).

This mindset is really important for product/company launches, as well as if you are facing a shortage of leads.

Conversely, if you’re under scrutiny for marketing costs, you may set more aggressive goals, so each customer is worth more (even if you get fewer of them).

For example, I might only be willing to pay $30 for that $300 product/service.

This inherently means that I will get fewer leads than when I was willing to pay $100 to acquire them, but that might also provide needed operational filters (not overloading sales/customer success teams with leads).

The ROAS equation is a little tougher because you still want to factor in lifetime value. Most industries do well somewhere between a two-time and five-time ROAS goal.

It’s also worth noting that your CPC will be directly impacted by which school of thought you adopt. Absolutely use bid floors and caps to make sure you bid enough to enter the auction, as well as balance how much of your budget goes to a single click.

As a general rule, you don’t want more than 10% of a daily budget going to one click because a 10% conversion rate is really good for non-branded.

However, the floor is a bit trickier to set. If you don’t have the data for your industry CPCs, consider starting with 3% of your daily budget.

Which Metrics Matter

Ultimately, the metrics that matter are the ones enabling you to “go do” off of the analysis, as well as the ones weighted in the auction.

These metrics are weighted in the auction:

• Conversions.
• CTR.
• CPC.
• Quality score*: While this is not officially weighted in the auction anymore, the core signals informing it still are.

These metrics are your “go do’s:”

• CPA/ROAS: Are you making enough money off of your ads? If not, adjust targets.
• Impression share: Based on what, if any, is lost to, make structural, bidding, or budgeting changes
• Conversion rate/CTR: Are the account and website supporting each other in winning business, and do you trust the reporting of both?

Metrics like Ad Strength and optimization score are friendly suggestions but don’t actually impact your account performance.

Final Takeaways

It can be tough to know where to focus on your ad account.

Hopefully, this review of the metrics and their relationships to each other helps you prioritize what to focus on, report on, and act on.

More resources:

Featured Image: kenchiro168/Shutterstock

Mastering AI-Powered PPC Bid Strategies: A Guide To Maximizing Performance via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Let’s talk about PPC bidding strategies. If you’ve ever felt like you’re throwing darts in the dark when it comes to picking the right one, you’re not alone.

When I first started in Google Ads, the only bidding strategy available was “Max CPC” bidding, meaning everything was manual.

Nowadays, there are many AI-powered bidding strategies to fit your diverse campaign needs.

These strategies aren’t exactly a “one size fits all” deal for your campaigns.

Not only are there more choices than ever to reach your goals, but the inputs you set at the campaign level are just as crucial for success.

The truth is that choosing the right bid strategy can be the difference between crushing your PPC goals or watching your budget go up in flames.

Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of AI-powered bid strategies, or Smart Bidding strategies, and figure out how to maximize performance for each of your campaigns.

How Many PPC Bid Strategies Does Google Ads Have?

Google Ads offers multiple types of bidding strategies aimed at meeting the goals of all available campaign types.

These strategies use Google AI to optimize in every single auction, typically known as “real-time bidding.”

It takes many factors into consideration at the time of auction outside of your bidding strategy, including device, location, time of day, operating system, and many more.

Google categorizes their Smart Bidding strategies into three main goals:

• Conversions.
• Clicks.
• Viewability.

It’s important to match your Google Ads bid strategies with the campaign’s specific advertising objectives.

If you’re not sure where to start with goals, consider these points when making a bid strategy decision:

• Are you looking for users to take direct action on your website?
• Do you want to increase website traffic overall?
• How important is brand awareness to you?
• Are you looking to increase video engagement and interaction?
• Are you focused on product or brand consideration when users are actively shopping around?

Conversion-Based Bid Strategies

Currently, Google Ads offers these Smart Bidding strategies aimed at increasing conversions:

• Target Cost per Action (CPA).
• Target Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
• Maximize Conversions.
• Maximize Conversion Value.
• Enhanced Cost per Click (eCPC).

Click-Based Bid Strategies

If your main goal is gaining website traction, the only automated bid strategy currently available is Maximize Clicks.

Manual CPC bidding is still an option, but we’ll get to that later on in the article.

Visibility-Based Bid Strategies

Not all campaigns aim to capture the final conversion, and that’s ok!

You need to have some element of brand awareness coming in, otherwise the group of people who know about your product will continue to shrink.

If your campaign goals are focused on awareness, consider these automated PPC bidding strategies:

• Target Impression Share.
• CPM.
• tCPM.
• vCPM.

Next, we’ll examine the main AI-powered PPC bidding strategy more granularly to get a better understanding of each one, as well as when it makes sense to choose that particular bid strategy.

Read more: PPC Automation Layering: How To Get More From Google Ads

Target Cost Per Action (CPA) Bidding

Target CPA lets you set the amount you’re willing to pay for a conversion. Google Ads uses machine learning to get as many conversions as possible at or below your set CPA.

Google then takes your Target CPA to set bids based on the likelihood of conversion from that particular user.

While some conversions may cost more than your Target CPA, others may cost less than your target, but overall, the Google Ads system tries to keep your cost per conversion at the level you set.

There are multiple use cases for choosing Target CPA bidding:

• Historical conversion data is available. This bid strategy requires historical conversion data, so if you have ample campaign or account conversion data, this could be a good strategy for you.
• You need better budget control. It’s also good if you need to retain control over your CPA in order to manage the overall ROI of your PPC program.
• Conversion tracking is accurately set up. As long as there are no underlying issues with your conversion tracking, this bid strategy could be reliable for your campaigns.

For example, say you run an online boutique clothing website and know that acquiring a new customer at $50 will still be profitable. For your campaign, you choose the Target CPA bid strategy and set the limit to $50.

As you’re running your campaigns, the data shows you’ve consistently been acquiring new customers at $40. Because of this, the Google Ads system knows it can optimize bids further to get you more customers while still staying within that $50 limit.

Now, there are some limitations to Target CPA bidding to be aware of:

• Limited budgets could reduce visibility. If you’ve set a competitive Target CPA, Google may limit your ad exposure or participation in the auction and reserve your budget for more expensive or competitive auctions. Essentially, you may see impressions and clicks decline as the system “conserves” budget expenditure for the most likely-to-purchase candidates.
• Misalignment of daily budget and Target CPA can reduce results. Say you have a daily budget of $50 for your campaign, but your Target CPA is set at $25. Your impressions may be vastly reduced because, in this scenario, you’d need to have a stellar conversion rate for the number of clicks you get in order to stay within that $25 CPA.

Target Return On Ad Spend (ROAS) Bidding

Target ROAS aims to achieve a specific return on ad spend. You set the desired ROAS, and Google Ads optimizes bids to maximize conversion value while hitting your target.

Similar to Target CPA, Google then takes your ROAS inputs to set bids based on the likelihood of a conversion from that particular user.

Some good use cases for using Target ROAS bidding for campaigns include:

• Your goals are revenue-driven. Target ROAS is great for ecommerce businesses where goals are revenue-based.
• You have high-value transactions. This PPC bidding strategy can be especially effective for high-revenue transactions or a high volume of conversions.
• Proper conversion tracking is set up. Similar to Target CPA bidding, this strategy requires accurate conversion tracking. As long as tracking is accurate and validated, this can be a good choice for your campaigns.

The Target ROAS bid strategy is a great choice when you need to balance the cost of your PPC campaigns versus the revenue coming in.

Ultimately, it helps generate more revenue for every dollar spent.

For example, you have an online store that sells running shoes. Your average order value is $150, and you aim to have a 300% ROAS.

That means for every $1 you spend, you get back $3 in revenue. By setting a Target ROAS, Google optimizes campaign bids to focus on the specific conversions that will likely meet or exceed that 300% ROAS goal.

As your campaigns gain more historical sales data, you’ll notice that more of your dollars are going to those higher revenue-generating sales because of the goal setting.

With Target ROAS settings, remember that if you have an overall goal of 300% ROAS, that doesn’t mean every campaign you set should have that 300% goal.

When it comes to search campaigns, brand terms and non-brand terms are not created equal. Brand terms will likely have the highest ROAS because someone is actively searching for your brand, signaling a higher likelihood of purchase.

Non-brand terms, on the other hand, will be more competitive and costly, and likely won’t have the same ROAS as brand terms. So, be sure to set your ROAS goals at the campaign level accordingly.

Maximize Conversions Bidding

Maximize Conversions automatically sets bids to help you get the most conversions within your budget. 

This strategy aims at spending your entire campaign budget without having any ROAS or CPA limitations.

Maximize Conversions can be an ideal bid strategy if:

• You have more budget flexibility. As mentioned above, this strategy is not constrained by CPA or ROAS targets. If you’re looking to drive as many conversions as possible and have the budget to do so, this strategy is right for you.
• You’re looking for quick wins. If you just launched a new product and conversion expectations are high, this is an ideal strategy.
• A broader audience is targeted. This strategy can be effective with a broader audience because there’s more of a likelihood for your ads to show as the system learns what a valuable customer looks like.

For example, your company just launched a new fitness app and needs to acquire users quickly.

By having a flexible budget, Maximize Conversions is chosen to drive as many downloads and signups as possible. Google will automatically adjust those bids to find the users most likely to convert.

This bid strategy is not for the faint of heart, especially for advertisers who have limited budgets or need to stay within certain performance constraints.

Maximize Conversion Value Bidding

Similar to Maximize Conversions, the Maximize Conversion Value strategy sets bids to help you get the most conversion value within your budget.

This strategy aims to optimize for conversion value while spending your entire campaign budget without having any ROAS or CPA limitations.

Maximize Conversions can be an ideal bid strategy if:

• Conversion value is prioritized over volume. This bid strategy is suitable when the goal is to prioritize high-value conversions instead of the volume of conversions.
• Campaigns are revenue-focused. Maximize Conversion Value is great when maximizing revenue is important.
• Your products have multiple price points. This is an effective bid strategy when you have different products that vary in price. The system will learn to focus on the high-value transactions from users.

For example, you run an online wedding invitations company with higher price points. Your site also sells accessories that cost much less than the invitations.

Using the Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy helps focus on those high-value transactions, like wedding invitations, to boost your revenue while spending your campaign budget.

As with each bidding strategy, there are some limitations to using the Maximize Conversions (and Value) strategies:

• Performance is dependent on campaign budget. If the campaign budget is set too low, it will be difficult for Google Ads to effectively learn and optimize towards high-value conversions.
• Less control over specific types of conversions. If you’re measuring multiple conversion types that have values associated, this strategy doesn’t allow you to target the specific conversion types. Its aim is to look at the overall conversion value.
• This could lead to inefficiencies in performance metrics. While you may see an increase in revenue, you could also yield higher Cost per Acquisition, especially during more competitive markets.

At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide if you have enough budget flexibility to utilize Maximize Conversions (or Value) or need to stay within certain ROAS or CPA constraints.

Read more: How To Get The Most Out Of Max Conversion Value And tROAS Bidding

Maximize Clicks Bidding

The Maximize Clicks bid strategy aims to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.

What’s nice about this strategy is that you can add “ceiling” bid limits for Google to not go over within the auction process.

Maximize Clicks is ideal for your campaigns if:

• You’re looking to increase website traffic. If you’re less focused on conversion and looking to get as much traffic as possible, this strategy is for you.
• You’re running Top-of-Funnel (TOF) or Middle-of-Funnel (MOF) campaigns. Similar to the above, if your campaign goal is more about awareness generation and buyer consideration, Maximize Clicks is a great place to start.
• You’re setting up new campaigns with no history. Because many of the conversion-based bid strategies require historical data, setting campaigns to Maximize Clicks with a suitable maximum CPC limit can really help your campaigns take off quickly.

For example, you started a recipe blog website and just published a new guide on healthy swaps in your kitchen. Your primary goal is to drive as much traffic to that page as possible within your given budget.

Using the Maximize Clicks bid strategy will then aim to get you as many clicks to your site within that budget for the keywords you’re bidding on. Just remember to set a maximum CPC if you’re in a competitive industry!

Target Impression Share Bidding

This next PPC bidding strategy focuses mainly on the visibility of your campaigns, whereas the others focus on conversion or click-based outcomes.

Target Impression Share automatically sets bids to help ensure your ads achieve a specific impression share on the search results page. 

You can choose your goal to show your ads:

• At the absolute top of the page.
• On the top of the page.
• Anywhere on the page of the search results.

Using the Target Impression Share strategy can help boost your campaigns if:

• Brand awareness is top of mind. If the campaign’s main goal is maintaining a solid presence on Google or increasing visibility for your brand, this strategy is for you.
• You’re in a highly competitive market. In markets where competition is high and visibility to your brand is crucial.
• You’re running top-of-funnel keywords. Similar to brand awareness, you may be targeting keywords that aren’t conversion-focused and want your brand to be top of mind when users first start their purchase journey.

For example, you just launched a new fashion brand and want to ensure your ads are visible in a highly competitive space.

Your goal is to appear at the top of the Google search results page for keywords like “summer fashion trends” or “stylish summer outfits for women.” By choosing Target Impression Share, you can choose how often you’re willing to appear at the top of the page for the keywords you’re bidding on.

Keep in mind that by using this bid strategy, you may see higher-than-average CPCs. That’s because you’re paying extra for that coveted top space on the search results page.

Another example is setting your brand campaign on Target Impression Share to ensure your core brand terms are always covered.

Results have been mixed in my experience, as sometimes I’ll just see inflated CPCs on terms where I would’ve seen lower CPCs utilizing Maximize Conversions or Maximize Clicks.

What About Manual Bidding?

Manual CPC bidding is still around – for now.

Google has not indicated that it is removing this option, but we can never guarantee that it will always be there.

As the name says, Manual CPC bidding means you set the maximum CPCs you’re willing to pay. They can be set at the campaign, ad group, or keyword level.

The reason many have transformed their PPC bidding strategies to more AI-powered strategies from Google is that human real-time bidding simply can’t keep up with machine learning.

There are still use cases for brands who need to use Manual CPC and continue to use it to this day. Especially for brands that don’t have conversion data or are running small accounts, some just opt into this model for managing their Google Ads campaigns.

Read more: Do Manual Adjustments Still Make Sense With Automated Bidding?

Choose The Right Strategy For Your Specific Goals

So, there you have it – a breakdown of Google Ads’ AI-powered bid strategies and when to use them.

Remember, the key to PPC success is not just picking any strategy but choosing the right one for your specific goals and campaign needs.

Google’s machine learning outputs are usually the direct result of the inputs from the advertisers, so choose accordingly. And remember, they can be changed over time! Just make sure that your changes align with the overall business goals.

By understanding these strategies, you can make smarter decisions and get the most out of your PPC budget. Happy optimizing!

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